


PDA's

by KahtyaSofia



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Character Study, Gen, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-25
Updated: 2009-11-25
Packaged: 2017-10-03 18:02:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KahtyaSofia/pseuds/KahtyaSofia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ianto's thoughts about his relationship with Jack during the course of S2.</p>
            </blockquote>





	PDA's

**Author's Note:**

> Un-beta'd, all errors are my own and con crit is encouraged. There was a panel at Escapade Con this past weekend that was called something like "Jack and Ianto: Twu Wuv or not?". The answer is somewhere in the middle we decided. movies_michelle said something that I think I had always believed but had never formulated into a conscious thought. The upshot of it is that Jack came back in love with Ianto and wanting to prove it and live it, as best as he's able. It is Ianto who is hesitant to let his heart become fully involved because Jack is likely to run off at a moment's notice. Or so Ianto thinks. He just can't quite trust and believe. This fic explores that.

**_I_**anto walked into the new conference room, located in the lower levels, now that Owen had turned their old one into a hydroponics lab. Jack was affectionately calling it the 'hothouse'. Ianto suspected, as might the others, that it was a veiled reference to the things the two of them had gotten up to in the old conference room before it had been blown to bits.

Speaking of Jack, Ianto took in the sight of Jack's broad shoulders over the back of the chair. He was seated at the head of the table; once again exuding an air of authority like he'd never been gone at all.

Ianto took the chair to Jack's left. The rest of the team was assembled at varying distances around the table. Ianto passed out the coffee mugs appropriately. He placed his own on the table before finally lifting Jack's from the tray.

He went to set the mug on the table in front of Jack but as he did, Jack also reached for it. It was nothing new that their fingers brushed while exchanging a mug of coffee. That had happened the first time they'd made the cup exchange just outside the tourist office. This was different.

Ever since Jack had returned and oh-so-quaintly asked Ianto to a date, he'd also been making frequent and _open_ physical contact with Ianto. So here he sat, unable to take his own hand from Jack's blue striped coffee mug because of _Jack's hand_ wrapped around it.

Ianto's eyes locked on their connected hands. For what seemed like the quadrillionth time since Jack's return, Ianto's breathing stopped while his heart rate kicked into high gear. He wished with every fibre of his being that Jack couldn't feel the tremor in his hand. Ianto was torn between needing to pull his hand away; to put distance between himself and Jack and wanting to linger and return the caress.

That last thought scared him to death. Ianto didn't want to want Jack any more. He'd been embarrassingly glad when Jack had returned from his inexplicable absence. Immediately he'd set about hardening his heart so as not to be drawn back in by Jack's charm and broad, bright smiles. It hadn't been a smile, though, that had suckered Ianto. It had been a thoroughly open, completely straight-faced admission.

Still, for the majority of the time Ianto had known Jack, let alone been shagging him, he'd never really known him at all. He'd learned more truth about Jack in the time surrounding the events of Abandon's rise and fall than he had in all the previous months and Ianto suspected, no – he knew – that he'd not even yet scratched the surface.

He gave himself a mental shake. Ianto tried to steady his breathing and slow his racing heart before Jack sensed them both, if he hadn't already.

He pulled back his hand as soon as the pressure of Jack's fingers eased on his own. Even that receding contact was warm and intense and so _loaded_ with feeling, Ianto felt off balance.

When he finally raised his eyes to Jack's with what he sincerely hoped was a sufficiently shuttered and distant expression, all he saw in Jack's face was warm affection. No shuttered eyes, no leer, no crooked and suggestive smirk. Simply, honest emotion.

Ianto tore his gaze away, unable to fully comprehend and process what that look truly meant. When he glanced down the table at the rest of the team, he realized they'd seen it all. Jack hadn't even bothered to hide their brief interaction, nor did he down play it with innuendo and lewd suggestiveness. He'd let the team see his genuine feelings for Ianto.

Ianto didn't like that at all.

Not long after, Ianto was standing just behind Tosh's chair as they scoured data scrolling across her monitor. They were the only two that understood the information contained in the coding, although Ianto was sure Jack had more than a clue he always deferred to Tosh. Even as that thought flit across Ianto's mind, Jack suddenly appeared at his elbow.

He struggled not to lean into Jack's hand when is settled on his back. In the past, Jack would have laid the hand on Ianto simply to announce his presence in close proximity and then pulled it back. This time his hand stayed; it _lingered_; it _caressed_.

Ianto willed his tensed muscles to relax. He convinced himself his breathing was slow and steady. The heat of Jack's hand leeched through Ianto's clothes and burned into his skin.

Tosh swivelled in her chair and her eyes flicked briefly to take in Jack's arm extended behind Ianto before they danced up to Jack's face. Gwen and Owen both came over to hear Tosh's explanation of what the coding meant. They came up from behind and both could clearly see Jack's hand where it continued to run up and down Ianto's back. They tried to school their expressions but they couldn't hide minute traces of humour and surprise. Ianto nearly felt ill with embarrassment.

His embarrassment didn't stem from Jack's blatant sign of open affection, but from what he knew were pitying thoughts from all three of his teammates. They perceived that Ianto had fallen right back into Jack's arms, although he hadn't. They believed he was setting himself up for another hard fall when Jack either wandered to another or ran off again. Ianto wondered if he was kidding himself that he had steeled himself against Jack's charm to prevent devastation in just such an event.

It took all of Ianto's willpower not to panic and run when Jack placed a warm hand on his hip one day. He'd just come up from Autopsy and Jack had just come out of his office looking for him. He stepped in close to Ianto, but not in his usual space-crowding way. It was more – intimate – than suggestive. The hand on Ianto's hip felt more emotional than sexual.

Jack did nothing more than talk to Ianto about the case they were working on. He asked questions and considered Ianto's answers carefully. He even chose to act on Ianto's suggestions. It wasn't indulgence, either. Ianto's suggestions bore fruit and helped close the case.

This came as a complete surprise to Ianto who could barely form a coherent thought as Jack's warm hand burned into his hip and _remained there_ as members of the team came and went around them as they talked.

Ianto started to push Jack. Push him as a man, a former lover and as his commanding officer. His response to Jack's open affection and public declaration of his feelings for Ianto was to see how far the boundaries were set. What would Jack tolerate as penance? What would Jack tolerate in affection?

A lot, it turned out. So much so, Ianto stopped pushing. Okay, that honest admission that Jack was fully invested in living on Earth in the twenty-first century had quite a bit to do with it. It was the closest Ianto knew he would ever come to hearing Jack speak his feelings.

Still, Jack was who he was. He could swan off any moment if the Doctor called. Another former acquaintance like John Hart could fall through the Rift with an offer Jack couldn't refuse this time. Ianto didn't doubt Jack's sincerity of feeling, but an offer of unlimited time and space would someday be more enticement than Jack could resist. Ianto fell back into Jack's bed, and fell just a little bit in love with him again.

Even as Jack touched him, caressed him, and placed chaste kisses on his lips in full view of the entire team, Ianto never let himself forget that Jack was of another world and another time. This time, when Jack left, Ianto wouldn't be nearly as devastated. He knew it would happen eventually. He grabbed every moment with Jack and made it precious because they were finite.

When Martha Jones questioned him, Ianto meant it when he'd said he and Jack were just dabbling. To admit to more, to _feel_ more, would mean disaster when Jack left again.

When Gwen caught them in the 'hothouse' it was pretty fucking hilarious.

When Jack really did leave again, it was okay, because Ianto was going to die when the Daleks breached the Hub.

They'd had a good run. But all good things must come to an end.

finito

(OK to convert and Kindle as long as header remains intact. Please comment if you do.)


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